Review Archive

The Tall Trees from Nick Edward Harris - you should really take time to investigate

(January 10, 2015)

Strong percussive acoustic guitar, warm searching vocals and enigmatically arranged instrumentation - ‘The Tall Trees’ is something you should really take time to investigate. Take note though, this latest release by Nick Edward Harris needs your ear to concentrate. Why? Because it presents seriously involving lyrics washing over expansive and idiosyncratic melodies - anything other than digging into its depths simply doesn’t do this album justice. There’s a sense of liberation and independence backed by expression of experience, perhaps driven by walking away from society and encountering a ‘frugal and solitary life’. That isolation certainly drove a creative rush, or possibly the essence you hear in ‘The Tall Trees’ lingered inside the man all along, whatever the answer, this is an album to hear.

Each song stands its own distinct narrative, the multi-layered ‘Calm Your Demons’ opens, ‘Unarmed’ takes a more contemplative and solitary journey, before stringed tiers pour through ‘Trying to Be Silent’. A sense of latent power rides through the guitar and slightly shadier vocals on ‘The Horse Road’: “… though the moments took on meaning they were a never ending tide”, while the supremely expressive instrumental ‘Moscow to Beijing’ lingers like a soft mist ahead of the ‘Then and Now’. Throughout ‘The Tall Trees’ sumptuous guitar predominates (in a good way), add finely placed accents ranging from flugelhorn, accordion, cello and flute, and it grabs your attention.